Assessing the veracity of this statement is left as an exercise for the reader

In today’s NZ Herald -

There’s nothing quite like American exceptionalism when it comes to multinational tax evasion by billionaires www.theguardian.com/business/202...

One sensible use of blockchain is to identify every single pinus radiata log in every forest so we can hold forestry companies fully accountable when their logs destroy other people’s property #nzpol

Sanho is a former military historian and an expert on South American narcopolitics. He knows what he's talking about here.

Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.

Here in AoNZ, we’re expecting a statement from the government that the violent abduction of the Venezuelan head of state is being ‘closely monitored for any possible impact on international dairy prices’ #nzpol

Knives Out 1338 Edition

Please note the accurate and updated location of Western Aotearoa, with its two land masses of North West Island and South West Island #nzpol

We’ve got to do something about these apparently driverless cars roaming the streets and running people down, seemingly with no human behind the wheel that might actually be responsible for the crashes that kill people

I wonder if the Mowbrays are amongst the 350 richest families in the country, which IRD reported paid a mere 8% effective tax rate on their income? 🤔 #nzpol

"I announced to my family that we were quitting our streaming services and going analog." For a while, at least. Fascinating essay by Jess Love, on rediscovering physical media, hitting the reminiscence bump and what it might mean. #FilmSky #MovieSky theamericanscholar.org/the-last-goo...

And see those yellow bars? We’re big contributors to those, sending our national treasure across the Tasman to make Australians rich at our expense, thanks to the neoliberal idiots who sold off our banks and supermarkets and insurance companies and all the rest to the Aussies #nzpol

To give them their due, calling it ‘Your Year with ChatGPT’ does have a much nicer ring to it than ‘Annual Hallucinations Summary’

While this is good news and should be celebrated as such, it stuns me that the UK managed to phase out coal generation before NZ has, thanks to the stupidity of neoliberal economics #nzpol

The only sane response is to be the audience at every New Zealand pub since forever: “BORING! PLAY SOMETHING WE KNOW!”

Is this peak mansplaining?

That’s everything wrong with Treasury summed up in a single sentence … expecting builders to stand behind their work could “stifle innovation”. Which makes perfect sense if you regard the billions of dollars lost in the leaky homes debacle as a win for innovation #nzpol

The Guardian is reporting on our collapsing regional towns, and when questioned, the government comes up with the dumbest quote ever: ‘the coalition government has said it will boost the economy by cutting new spending by $1bn to reduce borrowing and debt’ 🧵 www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

I read this entire series on Eddie’s recommendation and it’s truly great. Well worth the effort of hunting it down on Kobo

I really think Ruth Richardson is selling herself short. Not wanting to participate in a “circus” when the entire country knows her grasp of economics is an utter clown show does mean we’re missing out on some priceless stand up comedy #nzpol

Yep, definitely back on track. Although to be fair, those landlord tax cuts aren’t going to pay for themselves #nzpol

This is such patronising bullshit. We’re not aspiring to “unrealistic” things like a three-day work week, a holiday house and a pony. We want kids fed, a health system, a role in life for everyone. Those things aren’t unrealistic, they’re a *choice* successive governments are making to deny us.

Whenever some bloke - and it’s always a bloke - declares himself to be a prophet of god and starts a community, Police should automatically open a sexual abuse investigation and avoid the 20 years of pain, because these pricks are all the same #nzpol

‘Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all.’ - John Maynard Keynes Or in this case, the equally extraordinary belief that either Ruth Richardson or Nicola Willis care about people #nzpol

There’s the kind of thought that says if you’ve done nothing wrong, then there’s no harm in surveillance … to which I add the quote attributed to Cardinal Richelieu: ‘If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him’

The entire thread is a thing of joy

Compared with Spotify, Tidal is a bit shit - the user interface is nothing to write home about, and the algorithm feels like a first year coding project. But this is exactly why you should dump Spotify and move to Tidal anyway

Which goes to show, National’s support of the Regulatory Standards Bill had nothing to do with the expediency of coalition negotiations and everything to do with an embrace of hardline right wing libertarian ideology #nzpol

I remain adamant that rare wine fraud is the most pro-social, most economically productive, most just, and most hilarious crime that exists. The prison sentence for anyone convicted of it should be two weeks in a resort and extra training to help them do it better.

This is another example of trying to paper over AoNZ’s plummeting productivity by simply working more hours. But the real reason for our abysmal productivity is a lack of capital investment on the back of the complete absence of a national economic strategy

The whole faulty premise of this article and all its fellow travelers is that people only exist for the benefit of the economy, rather than the other way around #nzpol

Anyone still looking for a Secret Santa gift?

“I knew that one day we might have to watch as capitalism and greed and bigotry led to a world where powerful men, deserving or not, would burn it all down. What I didn’t expect, and don’t think I could have foreseen, is how incredibly cringe it would all be.” - Rebecca Shaw #nzpol

And it’s worth every single cent #nzpol

This is gold - Ed Zitron sums up everything that’s wrong with AI and the tech industry in a handful of paragraphs. Essential reading

1970s-era Spotify

And what day is it today, people? That’s right, it’s IKEA Eve!

It’s reassuring to see that Brian Roche is spending his time focused on social media and strike breaking, rather than wasting his efforts as titular head of the public sector on small matters such as - say - the culture and conduct issues at NZ Police #nzpol

Important thing to remember in this rates cap beat-up by the government: the very same government is a freeloader, because it’s exempted itself from paying rates at all #nzpol

The headline - “I will never waiver in my commitment to fiscal responsibility” - translates to, “I solemnly pledge to put money before people”. Vote accordingly

It’s worth noting that in the Commerce Commission’s market study into banking, they said some of the core IT systems used by the Aussie-owned banks are so old they’ve been depreciated to zero - they’re basically just scrap metal with blinking lights

Banker: rhymes with …

I see the age-old insult of ‘eat shit and die’ has now morphed into an official National Party policy of ‘drink shit and die’ #nzpol

Westpac also increased its profits by 13% over the last year, in the midst of the most brutal recession in a generation. So it’s hardly surprising they’ve been pinged for breaching lending rules, because they’re not exactly a hotbed of ethical behavior #nzpol

In today’s NZ Herald #nzpolitics

I wrote to Min Willis some months ago and asked her what action she was taking to ensure banks brought interest rates down to match the OCR drops. Her response: “banks make their own commercial decisions”. So today’s pronouncement is just empty rhetoric #nzpol

I’m wondering if this sudden outbreak of conscience is just Nicola getting some distance between Christopher “I can’t negotiate for shit” Luxon and her own misplaced leadership ambitions #nzpol

Given that the functions of regional councils - like flood protection at a regional scale - need to continue, I think the likely option is a change of name and the removal of democracy in favour of a commercial governance model, such as boards appointed by the Minister #nzpol